| Pasi Mustonen | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | (1960-10-11)11 October 1960 (age 65) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Defense | ||||||||||||||||
| Played for | JYP Jyväskylä Nittorps IK | ||||||||||||||||
| Current coach | Finnish women's national ice hockey team | ||||||||||||||||
| Coached for | |||||||||||||||||
| Playing career | 1975–1985 | ||||||||||||||||
| Coaching career | 1991–present | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Pasi Mustonen (born 11 October 1960) is a Finnishice hockey coach and retireddefenceman, currently serving as head coach of theFinnish women's national ice hockey team (Naisleijonat). He is the first coach of the women’s national team to be employed full time by theFinnish Ice Hockey Association.[1] Mustonen has served as head coach of the women‘s national team since 2014 and is under contract through the2022 Winter Olympics inBeijing.[2] With Mustonen at the helm, the team won bronze at the2018 Winter Olympics and claimed medals at threeWorld Championships, including their first-ever silver medal in2019.[3]
Mustonen previously worked as assistant coach of theOulun Kärpät and theLahden Pelicans in theLiiga, head coach of the Kärpät during the team’s years in theI-divisioona, and was head coach to a number of Swedish teams, includingAsplöven HC andKiruna IF of theDivision 1, andTingsryds AIF andSkellefteå AIK of theAllsvenskan.
During his playing career, Mustonen played as adefenceman in Finland’s I-divisoona and in the Swedish Division 1 andDivision 2. He participated in the1985 Winter Universiade and won bronze with the Finnish men's ice hockey team.
In the 1986, he became the junior coaching manager of theIlves Tampere. In the late 1980s, he was the coaching manager ofSC Rapperswil-Jona of the SwissNationalliga B.[4] Mustonen's coaching career began in1991–92 as head coach of Kärpät Oulu in the I-divisoona. In his first season, he coached the team to second in the regular season and all the way to the qualifiers before they were beaten byTappara, 3–1. During Mustonen's second season with the team, Kärpät forward Matti Veivo was paralyzed after a severe injury sustained in an October match against Kalajoen Junkkarit. Mustonen and the team were deeply affected by Veivo‘s injury but were not permitted to delay or reschedule any matches and struggled as the season wore on. When he was fired by the club a month after the accident, Mustonen was not surprised.
After Kärpät, Mustonen worked as a coach in Sweden for eleven seasons. He first served as the head coach of Kiruna IF in the Division 1 from1993–94 to1996–97. In the first three seasons under Mustonen, the team finished the regular season in first or second place and participated in theElitserien qualifiers, though they did not gainpromotion. From1997–98 to2000–01, Mustonen coached Tingsryds AIF, which competed in the Division 1 during the 1997–98 and1998–99 seasons before being elevated to the newly establishedAllsvenskan for the1999–2000 season.[5]
From2001–02 to2003–04, Mustonen coached Skellefteå AIK of the Allsvenskan. The team progressed to the Elitserien qualifiers in the spring of 2003 but was not promoted.[6] He next coached the Division 1 team Asplöven HC in the2008–09 season. He coached the team to first place in the regular season and on to the HockeyAllsvenskan qualifiers but Asplöven did not secure promotion.
For the2011–12 and2012–13 seasons, Mustonen returned to coaching with the Kärpät as an assistant coach to head coachHannu Aravirta.[7] He developed a good relationship with Aravirta and has cited the now-retired coach as the single person he learned the most from in his career.[4] In the spring of 2013, the Lahti Pelicans announced that they had signed a one-year coaching agreement with Aravirta (as head coach) and Mustonen (as assistant coach) for the2013–14 season.
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women'sice hockey (as head coach) | ||
Representing Finland | ||
| Olympic Games | ||
 | 2018 Pyeongchang | Team |
| World Championship | ||
 | 2019 Finland | |
| 2017 United States | |
| 2015 Sweden | |
Mustonen was offered the Finnish women's national ice hockey team head coaching position at the suggestion of Aravirta, who had turned down the position in favor of retirement whenKalervo Kummola, chairman of theFinnish Ice Hockey Association, offered it in Spring 2014. Mustonen began in Summer 2014, despite having no previous women‘s coaching experience, and inherited a team that had been kept off the medal podium three consecutive times, ranking fourth at both the2012 and2013 IIHF Women's World Championships and fifth at the2014 Winter Olympics, the lowest Olympic ranking in team history.
Finland saw success in the first major international tournament with Mustonen at the helm, the2015 IIHF Women's World Championship, breaking its podium drought with a 4–1 win againstRussia in the bronze medal game.[8][9] In the following year, the team made it to the bronze medal game again but were ultimately denied a medal by Russia as the game came down togame-winning shots inovertime.[10][11][12]
"I coach because of relationships. Sure, it’s been nice to win a medal or be a world champion for a while, but that’s not what it's about. The most important thing is the people.
Since becoming head coach of the national team, he has been one of the most vocal advocates for women‘s ice hockey in Finland, calling attention to the devaluation of women‘s ice hockey by the hockey establishment and media in Finland,[13][14] emphasizing the importance of men‘s teams taking an active role in fostering and supporting sister teams and girls' hockey programs,[15][16] and discussing the areas in which traditional hockey culture needs to progress for the health of the game and those who participate in it.[17] He has recommended implementing women‘s ice hockey rules, which do not allowbody checking and require players wear full face protection, for all ice hockey competition as a step to limittraumatic brain injury in the sport.[18] In 2019, Mustonen was recognized by theFinnish Ministry of Education and Culture as a finalist for the Piikkarit Award (Finnish:Piikkarit-palkinto) in honor of his continued work promoting gender equality and pluralism in sport.[19]
Mustonen’s wife, Johanna, chose to relocate with him every time he moved for work – 24 or 25 times by his estimation – and he calls her his muse, saying "We are a team, and we don’t regret a day of the path we’ve taken."[4]
Mustonen‘s son,Joel, is an ice hockeycentre, currently playing withFrölunda HC of theSwedish Hockey League (SHL).
